I went on an interrail trip together with my boyfriend for almost the entire month of September. During this interrail we traveled through Europe by train. We had 6 travel days in total during that interrail. I want to write about all those 6 different routes in different posts on this blog. I already told you about our first travel day and our second travel day. Today I’ll continue with our third travel day. On travel day 3 of our interrail, we went from Krásná Lípa to Bratislava by train. I’ll tell you about the different route options, the costs, the journey itself and more.
The Route
Today I’m only describing one route option. That’s because there’s only one route with one transit. That is the route we personally took, because well, it’s the easiest. It’s the fastest option too. So, if you’re traveling from Krásná Lípa to Bratislava, take this route. And if you’re anywhere else in the Bohemian Swiss National Park, I assume that this route is easiest as well.
This is the route we took: Krásná Lípa – Decin – Bratislava. This route takes 7 hours and 42 minutes in total. This route option is available only once a day. So, you have to take the train from Krásná Lípa to Decin at 10:12 and the train from Decin to Bratislava at 12:02. You’ll then arrive in Bratislava at 17:54.
Prices and tickets
Since this train route was part of our interrail, we paid 40 euros per person (we had 5 travel days in total for 200 euros). However, I tried to find the same tickets on the Czech railway website just now and there I get a price of just 18 euros per person (about 448 Czech valuta) when you book as far in advance as the website allows you. So, I guess for this route it’s best to just buy the tickets locally, at a station anywhere in Czech Republic or the Czech railway website. That’s a little bummer for my boyfriend and I, but it’s good news for you!
Reservations
Interrail told us that a train reservation for the train from Decin to Bratislava is required. Honestly, I would not buy that reservation if I were you. It costs about 9 euros per person and they do not check on it. During our whole interrail, the reservations we thought were mandatory were not checked once. Next time, I would take the risk of not reserving a seat. It might result in you having to move seats a few times, but if that’s all, it’s completely fine.
Our experience
Now, I do need to tell you a bit about our experience with this train route. Because our plan failed. It was our third travel day and it was the third time things went wrong. We went from Krásná Lípa to Decin by train and that went completely fine. However, when we were waiting for our train to Bratislava in Decin, we found out that it had been delayed. We thought that was no problem, because Bratislava was our end station and so we wouldn’t miss our transit, as we did not have one. But the delay got longer and longer. At one point it was 75 minutes and we were so confused.
The person at the register could not tell us what was wrong and said the train was still coming. However, a fellow traveler who spoke both English and Czech, asked the person at the register again some time later and it turned out the train was not riding anymore. It had broken a few kilometers before Decin and it was not something they could fix easily. The fellow traveler gave us the advice to just go to Prague, the city we would pass anyway. Once there, there were more trains going to Bratislava (from Decin, there was only one going each day). And what he told us was true. Once in Prague we took a train to Bratislava.
Exceptional circumstances
Ultimately, we had a delay of 2 hours. Therefore, this trip took us 9 hours and 42 minutes. For us that was completely fine, as we had interrail tickets. During an interrail, if your train is cancelled, you just take another train. However, if you’re traveling with regular tickets this is not the case and the situation would be very shitty. I just hope our situation was exceptional, but I cannot say with certainty.
The trip itself
I cannot say everything about this route, because we did not take the route I am recommending here. But the train ride from Krásná Lípa to Decin was amazing. You’re traveling through the Bohemian Swiss National Park, which is stunning. It was my favorite part of the journey. The part from Decin to Bratislava, via Prague, was fine. Especially from Prague to Bratislava, you’re traveling with an international train and that’s really great, they have wi-fi and power sockets.
That’s everything about how we traveled from Krásná Lípa to Bratislava by train!
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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